Microsoft's C# (Sharp) & .NET -- A Heads Up

[Neil Hodgson]

> Do you know where I can get information on Microsoft's IL? Thanks,

   As yet, there is no real documentation for IL. It is mentioned in several
reports on the current Microsoft Professional Developers Conference and in
some of the papers associated with the conference.

   A reasonably interesting document is from Bertrand Meyers + pals:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/techart/PDC_eiffe
l.htm
    """The core of the technology consists of a run time that interprets
and/or compiles byte code (the virtual machine's internal language, also
known as "IL") with metadata. The metadata describes each component part of
the system, including the prototype for all its methods, fields, or events.
"""

   One report at http://www.codeproject.com/ says """As all languages now
compile to the same result, performance for all languages from C# and VB to
Python and Eiffel will have exactly the same performance. """. I don't
really believe this as the different capabilities of the different languages
will lead to different performance. Hoever, as all languages will be using
some common substrate code for features like memory management and exception
handling, performance levels for the different languages will be closer than
before.

   The highlight of the conference output for me was this ASP code:

<%@ page language="COBOL" %>
<script runat="server">
       OBJECT.
       DATA DIVISION.
       WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
       77 FONT-SIZE PIC S9(9) COMP-5.
       END OBJECT.
</script>
<% PERFORM VARYING FONT-SIZE FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL FONT-SIZE > 7 %>
<font size="<%=FONT-SIZE%>"> Hello COBOL world! </font> <br>
<% END-PERFORM. %>

   Neil